Conventional shower stalls typically include opposed side walls, a back wall and a low front wall, typically referred to as a front sill. The low front wall or sill serves as a water barrier at the floor level of the shower stall to preclude water from running out of the stall. A shower door or curtain typically cooperates with the front sill to enclose the front opening into the shower stall to thereby prevent water from splashing out of the stall.
Although prior art shower stall installations including a low front sill cooperating with a shower door or curtain do work well to retain water within the stall, these shower stall designs are not well suited for use by handicapped individuals that find it difficult to step over the front sill into the shower stall. These shower stalls clearly can not be used easily by individuals confined to a wheelchair and that need to remain in the wheelchair while taking a shower.
It is highly desirable to design shower stalls for handicapped people such that there is no front wall or sill that provides an obstacle to the person entering the stall. In other words, in a preferred shower stall design for use by handicapped individuals there should be a clear, unobstructed path from the floor region located outside of the stall onto the floor of the stall. Although these latter shower stalls can be used by handicapped individuals, including individuals that are confined to wheelchairs, there has not been a truly satisfactory design for effectively sealing the front opening into the stall to prevent the undesired escape of water therefrom. This invention is directed to a shower curtain for achieving this latter objective.
In addition, handicapped individuals taking a shower often require assistance from an attendant, who preferable will remain outside of the shower stall to provide such assistance when and as it is required. In order to provide the individual taking a shower with the desired privacy, and also to eliminate the need for the attendant to directly enter the stall while the individual is showering to provide assistance, it is highly desirable to permit the attendant to access the interior of the stall from an outside region without permitting excess water from flowing or splashing out of the stall. The present invention provides a convenient access opening in the curtain to accomplish this latter objective.
It is a general object of this invention to provide a shower curtain that is particularly adapted for use in enclosing a front opening into a shower stall of the type that does not include a low front wall or sill.
It is yet a further object of this invention to provide a shower curtain that effectively seals the opening into a shower stall, even if the shower stall does not include a low front wall or sill.
It is still a further object of this invention to provide a shower curtain that is neat in appearance and easy to use.
It is yet a further object of this invention to provide a shower curtain that permits easy access through it to permit an attendant located outside of the stall to assist an individual taking a shower.
The above and other objects of this invention are achieved by a shower curtain including a flexible sheet member having a transversely extending upper edge, a transversely extending bottom edge and opposed elongated side edges. The flexible sheet member is attached in an upper region adjacent to the upper edge thereof to an upper supporting member adjacent a front opening of the shower stall for movement between an extended, generally planar orientation closing the front opening into the stall, and a collapsed, generally folded orientation permitting access into the shower stall through the front opening thereof. Elongate side regions or panels of the sheet member adjacent to the elongate side edges include fastening members along an elongate section thereof for cooperating with fastening members on the opposed sidewalls of the shower stall to thereby close the opposed sides of the front opening into the shower stall. The fastening members on the elongate side panels are on the outside surface, thereby being disposed to cooperate with the fastening means on the side walls of the shower stall. Weights are disposed transversely along a lower region of the sheet member, and the sheet member includes a lower, inwardly directing transversely extending bottom panel spaced below the weights for engaging the floor of the shower stall. In the preferred embodiment of this invention the vertical distance between the transversely extending center line of the weights and the transversely extending bottom edge of the sheet material is at least four inches, with the distance between the transversely extending center line of the weights and the floor of the shower stall being no greater than two inches. In this manner, it is assured that the bottom panel of the sheet member, will actually lie flat on the shower floor to provide an effective water seal at the floor level of the stall.
In the preferred embodiment of this invention the weights are disposed transversely along the sheet material and terminate at opposed transverse ends spaced inwardly from the opposed elongate side edges of the sheet material, such that each of the elongate side regions or panels of the sheet material that includes the fastening members thereon have a transverse dimension extending substantially from one of the transverse ends of the weights to an adjacent elongate side edge of the flexible sheet material. In a preferred embodiment of this invention, the transverse direction of each of the elongate side regions is at least two inches, and more preferably at least three inches.
In the preferred embodiment of this invention, the weights that are disposed transversely along a lower region of the sheet material include a plurality of discrete members spaced transversely along the lower region of the sheet material, thereby permitting the sheet material to fold in regions between adjacent weights when the curtain is moved into a collapsed orientation to permit an individual to enter a shower stall from the front opening thereof.
In the most preferred embodiment of this invention, the weights are retained in a transversely extending passageway of an elongate, tubular weight-retaining housing that is attached to the flexible sheet member of the curtain, with the passageway being sealed at its opposed ends and with the regions between the weights being sealed to maintain the weights in their desired positions. Most preferably the tubular weight-retaining housing is retained within an elongate, transversely extending passageway of a second, outer housing, with the passageway in the second outer housing being sealed at its opposed ends and with said outer housing being directly secured to the front panel of the sheet member of the curtain to thereby attach the weights to the flexible sheet member. In the most preferred embodiment of this invention the outer housing is secured to the sheet member by being bonded thereto along a transversely extending, upper region of said outer housing.
In the most preferred form of the invention the upper region of the sheet member includes a row of transversely spaced apart openings therethrough for receiving members attachable to, or attached to the upper supporting member for the shower curtain, with the transversely spaced apart openings in the row being vertically offset from the spaces between the weight members. Moreover, the end openings of the row are spaced inwardly from the elongate side edges of the sheet material so as not to be located in the elongate side regions or panels of the sheet member.
In accordance with another aspect of this invention the flexible sheet member forming the shower curtain includes a panel section that can be at least partially separated from adjacent regions of the sheet member to provide communication between the inside and outside of a shower stall when the curtain is in an extended, generally planar orientation closing the front opening into the shower stall.
Most preferable the panel section is connected to adjacent regions of the sheet member by at least one fastening device that is operable both to secure the panel section to adjacent regions of the sheet member, and thereby completely seal the front opening into the shower stall, and to at least partially separate the panel section from the adjacent regions of the sheet material to permit at least limited access into the shower stall from a region outside of the stall. In the most preferred embodiment of this invention at least two fastening devices are employed and these fastening devices are most preferably zipper members.
In the most preferred embodiment of this invention the panel section can be separated from adjacent regions of the front panel of the shower curtain along opposed side regions and a top region of said panel section, said panel section including a bottom region permanently secured to the front panel of the shower curtain, and actually constituting a continuous extension of each front panel. In this preferred embodiment, one of the zipper members is moveable in a downward direction from the top of one of the opposed side regions to the bottom region, and the other of the zipper members is moveable in a downward direction from the top of the other of the opposed side regions to the bottom region. Moreover, at least one of the zipper members is moveable into a region for both fastening and separating the top region of the panel section to adjacent regions of the sheet member. In this manner the two zippers can be employed either to only partly open the panel section, or to completely open the panel section, as is desired.